Too much run off

[yennerstour]

So i tried my first ag yesterday and mashed 12 pounds of grain, 10 two row, 1 flaked barley, 1 caramell/crystal 90L. With 3.5 gallons of 160 degree h2o. had to add a little more boiling water to bring the temp to 151 and held for 60 minutes. This is probly where I went wrong, I kind of winged it and dumped like 4 gallons of 180 degree water in to sparge and let stand for 10 minutes. I collected like 6.5 gallons of runoff and boiled it, but i could have collected another 7 gallons it looked like, meaning the mash never really ran clear. I got rid of the excess, so heres my question. Should I have taken my wort from the middle of the runoff, or just collected all of it and had more beer?, Im new at this and still confused so anything will help. thanks

 

[Yooper]

So i tried my first ag yesterday and mashed 12 pounds of grain, 10 two row, 1 flaked barley, 1 caramell/crystal 90L. With 3.5 gallons of 160 degree h2o. had to add a little more boiling water to bring the temp to 151 and held for 60 minutes. This is probly where I went wrong, I kind of winged it and dumped like 4 gallons of 180 degree water in to sparge and let stand for 10 minutes. I collected like 6.5 gallons of runoff and boiled it, but i could have collected another 7 gallons it looked like, meaning the mash never really ran clear. I got rid of the excess, so heres my question. Should I have taken my wort from the middle of the runoff, or just collected all of it and had more beer?, Im new at this and still confused so anything will help. thanks

You dumped in all four gallons at once? And then drained all of it? Or not all of it? I don't quite understand.

 

[yennerstour]

dumped in four gallons and emptied enough to fill my kettle and left the rest, so not quite all of it, and i was using the cooler method with the braided hose and such

 

[Yooper]

dumped in four gallons and emptied enough to fill my kettle and left the rest, so not quite all of it, and i was using the cooler method with the braided hose and such

ok, so you left wort behind in the mash tun?

Next time, drain the MLT of the first runnings. That's where a higher percentage of sugar is. Measure what you get out- it should be about a gallon or so less than you put in. Then dump in hot water in the amount you need to get to your boil volume.

What I mean is this- say you used 3.5 gallons in your mash at 153. You should get out about 2.5 gallons. Once you measure it so you know, you can add what you need to your grainbed to get the proper boil volume. In this case, if you need 6.5 gallons in your boil kettle, you would add four gallons of water to the MLT, stir like a crazy person, then drain that.

Leaving wort behind, especially if you didn't drain the first runnings, means that you will have low efficiency.

 

[yennerstour]

ok, so you left wort behind in the mash tun?

Next time, drain the MLT of the first runnings. That's where a higher percentage of sugar is. Measure what you get out- it should be about a gallon or so less than you put in. Then dump in hot water in the amount you need to get to your boil volume.

What I mean is this- say you used 3.5 gallons in your mash at 153. You should get out about 2.5 gallons. Once you measure it so you know, you can add what you need to your grainbed to get the proper boil volume. In this case, if you need 6.5 gallons in your boil kettle, you would add four gallons of water to the MLT, stir like a crazy person, then drain that.

Leaving wort behind, especially if you didn't drain the first runnings, means that you will have low efficiency.

Thanks for the response, sweet learning! It'll still be beer (weak) though, right?